A PEACE campaigner watched as a fellow activist was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers - just weeks after another friend was crushed by a tank.

Alice Coy, a former Malvern Girls College student, said she ran for cover when shooting from Israelis forces broke out in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, on Friday.

Her fellow activist, Thomas Hurndall, aged 22, went to help Palestinian women and children trapped in the street and was critically wounded.

Mr Hurndall, from Manchester, is said to be stable in intensive care after a four-hour operation at an Israeli hospital.

Ms Coy had been walking in an area where several Palestinians had been killed the day before.

"We heard shots from an Israeli sniper tower," said the 27-year-old computer programmer.

"I ran around the corner with the Palestinians, but Tom saw women and children who could not run away.

"He ran towards them to offer support and get in front of them, but a sniper shot him in the head."

Ms Coy, a member of the International Solidarity Movement, said he had to wait for hours before being airlifted to a hospital in Israel with proper neurological facilities.

"We're all worried," said her mother, Glynis Coy, of Worcester Road, Malvern. "Anyone would want their family to be out of that area, but it's one of those things.

"She's committed to being there."